[Thomas Hearns]

Hansehalle, Luebeck, Germany, 2013-01-06

Round 7

Johnathon Banks 0-4-1 vs Alexander Ustinov 0-4-1
Looking for their first win Alex Ustinov and Johnathon Banks faced, they were clearly the two worse fighters of this group.
Banks outworked Ustinov on the first round but the Russian took the command of the actions winning a one-sided second round in which he hurt Banks with a violent hook.
Ustinov continued his momentum winning a competitive third round. The fourth round was an even actionless affaire. Ustinov clearly regained the control of the fight on the fifth round putting Banks in trouble with a straight right and he also won an anticlimathic actionless last round to secure his victory. My scorecard was 59-56 for Ustinov and the official ones were 59-56 (x3).

Konstantin Airich 2-2-1 vs Jovo Pudar 3-1-1 (1)
Konstantin Airich and Jovo Pudar fought to determine the third fighter to pass to the second round on this group.
Airich needed a win and started the fight at an accelerated pace hurting Pudar with a straight right fifteen seconds into the fight. At the middle stages of the round Airich hurt Pudar again with a right cross to the head, Pudar attemped to answer but he was clearly outworked.
Airich continued dominating the fight on the following round, a great uppercut by the German made Pudar stumble backwards to the ropes near the end of the round.
Airich also edged the third round to take a big lead on the cards, but on this round Pudar connected his first ppower blow a right cross to the head that stopped Airich cold.
On the fourth round and with Pudar attemped a warm reaction Airich connected a cross to Jovo’s head and dropped him for a six count. After Pudar got up Airich launched a fierce attack and dropped Pudar again a second before the bell rang with a violent body shot.
On the fifth round Pudar was a spent man and Airich punished him at his own. The final round had poor action with Airich sure of his victory and Pudar totally beaten and without energy to attemp something. My scorecard was 60-52 for Airich and the official ones were 60-52 (x3) for the winner by unaniomus decision Konstantin Airich. Big victory for Konstantin that displayed his best performance on the right moment.

Oldanier Solis 5-0-0 (2) vs Fres Oquendo 4-0-1 (1)
The best to fighters of the group and the only undefeated ones faced to determine the winner of the group.
The first round was very slow, Solis landed a big uppercut that seemed to hurt Oquendo but it was his only significant blow of the round, Oquendo landed a bit more to edge the round.
On the second round Oquendo connected a trademark uppercut and made Solis stumble backwards, but Solis recovered and rocked Oquendo with a great hook. Again Oquendo landed a bit more than Solis.
Solis started the third round commanding the actions but Oquendo rallied on the second half to edge the round. Oquendo ‘s uppercuts were a nightmare to Solis.
On the fourth round Solis was the clear dominator for the first time on the fight, a straight right followed by a solid right hook by the Cuban put Oquendo on trouble on this round.
The fifth round had violent back and forth action with both fighters connecting power blows and being hurt but Solis outlanded Oquendo to win the stanza.
But when the things seemed to go for Solis’ side, Oquendo had a winderfull first two minutes of the last round punishing Solis with his uppecuts and combinations form the inside, Solis put his last effort and attemped to rally on the last minute of the round but it wasn’t enough. My scorecard was 58-56 for Oquendo and the official ones were 58-56 and 57-56 for Oquendo and 57-57 so Fres Oquendo was the winner by majority decision.

Final Standings

F.Oquendo 11 -Record 5-0-1 (1)-
O.Solis 10 -Record 5-1-0 (2)-
K.Airich 7 -Record 3-2-1-
J.Pudar 7 -Record 3-2-1 (1)-
A.Ustinov 3 -Record 1-4-1-
M.Wach 3 -Record 1-4-1-
J.Banks 1 -Record 0-4-1-

Fres Oquendo, Oldanier Solis and Konstantiin Airich pass to the second round of the heavyweight tournament.